


Five Turnings

by blueorangecrush



Category: Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Five Times, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 19:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13620180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueorangecrush/pseuds/blueorangecrush
Summary: Five different places Luke and Merlin might have had their first kiss.





	Five Turnings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Serenade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenade/gifts).



> This started out as a five times/five possible universes thing that was supposed to be about Luke and Merlin, but I have to admit that I enjoy the potential of a longer-term Luke/Merlin/Nayda/Coral situation, so that snuck in, too. 
> 
> (The "dubious consent" tag is for references to the "Pattern made them do it" situation in canon, not anything new that happens in this fic itself.)

**1\. At the Olympic trials**

The Olympic trials changed something.

Maybe it’s the actually forced proximity, rather than simply the proximity that Merlin had halfway chosen to his rival.  Or had Luke chosen it?  He was never quite sure and it was unsettling, to have someone in Shadow this able to get him, to keep him, off-balance.

There is too much beer, there are too many congratulatory back-slaps, there are words shouted too loud and yet not loud enough to drown out the inescapable music.  

“I don’t give a shit about the Olympics,” Luke tells him.

“Me either, really,” Merlin agrees.  It’s not like he’d be allowed to compete, unless he went through a lot of fuss to forge paperwork _and a_ plausible family history, but he wasn’t going to tell _Luke_ that.  There are some things that just didn’t lend themselves to explanation.

“I just give a shit about you,” Luke adds.

“So we’re both good enough, is that what you’re trying to say?”

“You’re good enough for me, I’m trying to say.”  

And then Luke’s mouth is covering Merlin’s, which is both improbably bizarre and the most obvious thing in the world.  

—

**2\. On April 30th**

“Jasra!” The strange woman snarls.  _“Dead man!”_ She lunges forward to attack Merlin, and somehow Merlin manages to get away.

Just then, Luke appears.  Merlin’s not about to question how or why - that can happen later.

“No! You can’t!” Luke shouts.  “Mother, no, he’s not - he’s - you have to -“

He runs out of words, and instead he grabs Merlin and kisses him, full and hard on the mouth.

Merlin realizes immediately what Luke’s trying to do, even if not why - if S is, somehow, Luke’s mother, but Luke still has some kind of relationship with her, this must be Luke’s way of trying to get her to stop, and he must have some reason to think it would work.

“Kissing cousins, how sweet!” Jasra - S - Luke’s mom - _whoever_ she is says mockingly.

“Leave him alone.  Think of everything you did for Dad, because you love him.  I’d do as much - whatever it takes - just let him be.  Let _us_ be.”

Next thing Merlin knows, Luke has one of those strange Trumps, and they’re - going somewhere else.

“You probably have a lot of questions,” Luke says, once they are safely away from _her._

Merlin doesn’t know what to say or where to begin.  He just nods.

“One thing I want to tell you, first - it wasn’t an act. I meant what I said, back there.”

“Okay,” Merlin says slowly.  “Well, that’s a bit to process.  Might want to explain the kissing cousins thing, though?”

Luke sighs, heavily.  “Yeah, that’s the difficult part…”

—

**3.  Blue Crystal Cave**

“That, I take it, is the way out,” Merlin says.

Luke starts to say something, hesitates, stops.

Finally he manages, “This is so infernally complicated.  Still.”

Merlin laughs, bitter.  “So are you trying to say that you were going to, I don’t know, make me prisoner here, but you changed your mind?  This seems like a particularly luxurious holding cell.”

Luke sighs.  “You know me too well, Merle.  Too well, and yet not at all.”

The silence stretches out, uncomfortably, a third presence between them.

Luke is the one to break it.  “I guess I’m too much like my mother.”

“You’ve never talked about family before, Luke.”

“Luke isn’t even my real name.  I’m Rinaldo, son of Brand of Amber, last seen falling eternally into the fucking Abyss after losing his mind over some magic operation.”

“So, you’re saying…we’re cousins?” This is a bit much to process.  Or it would be, if it didn’t make things make way too much sense.

“That’s what I’m saying.  Part of it.  And that just makes everything worse.  Mother - she found herself someone who was just as crazy into magic as she was, and fell in love, and - I don’t know what made him do what he did, she blames it on a magic artifact that she guards and won’t let anyone else touch, but she wants revenge.”

“April 30th?”

“That’s when we got the news.”

“Why do you say you’re like her, though?”

“Because - I thought magic and power and the ability to change things were what I’d do anything to get.  And then - “

“Then?”

“Then I did the same thing she did.  Found someone like me and fell in love.”

“Julia?” Merlin is surprised he can say this without bitterness, but Julia’s fascination with the occult, a fascination _Merlin_ put into her head, might well have been what Luke was looking for.

Rinaldo.  Whoever.  He’s still Luke, to Merlin.

And he’s shaking his head, eyes closed, fists clenched.

And suddenly - suddenly, Merlin _knows._  

“Luke.  Rinaldo.”

“I’d _rather_ be Luke, damn it.  I’m -“

Merlin cuts him off with a kiss.  

—

**4.  Castle Amber**

Vialle believes Luke, that the vendetta is over.  That’s one headache fewer for Merlin.

“And Merlin?” she asks, which jolts him out of the daydream.

“He’s the reason I’m calling it off,” Luke says.  There’s something in his voice that Merlin’s not used to hearing.  Vialle gives Luke her ring, her protection, her faith.  Gives Luke and Merlin both free run of the castle and grounds.  It’s what they had hoped for.

They wander the castle gardens for a while, not saying much.  The plot of roses, silver-white, stops Merlin for a moment.

“I wish they could find my father.  I mean, I’d rather _know._ ”

Luke puts what’s meant to be a comforting arm around Merlin.  “Sometimes I wish I _didn’t_ know, about mine.  But here we both are.”

“Here we both are.”

“It’s - something.”

The roses suddenly stir another memory.  “Hey, at least that weird sorcerer isn’t sending me flowers lately.”  

Luke laughs.  “Doesn’t seem like your kind of present.  Any suggestions for what I should get you instead?”

“A good set of drawing pencils never goes unappreciated - I mean, the really good ones,” Merlin says, smiling.  Then his smile fades as he realizes something. “Wait a minute.  Luke?  What _you_ should get me?”

“Was hoping you’d pick up on that.  I mean, if you _want_ to pick up on that, it’s - “ Luke sounds more hesitant than Merlin’s probably ever heard him.

“It’s okay,” Merlin says.  And it _is -_ it’s the feeling of something settling into place that he didn’t even know was so out of place, and Luke kissing him feels like something that should have happened some other time, in some other place, but he’s not going to turn it away now.

—

**5.  The Palace at Kashfa**

Coral kisses Merlin on the cheek, gently, with more reserve than she’d shown before.  “I’m sorry - about all of this.  I should have said something but I think that Rinaldo and I had pretty much both forgotten, the marriage was arranged so long ago, and now - “

“And now it’s not what either of you want?”

“I don’t know what he wants but I’m quite sure it isn’t me.  I mean, he seems pretty happy with Nayda, or with that creature that took Nayda over, I guess he remembers her - or it or whatever - from somewhere else?  If we’d _thought,_ she’s my sister, as far as anyone knows, that would have worked just as well.  And then - I mean if you wanted - we could see how we liked each other.”

Merlin can’t help laughing.  “Nayda told me she was in love with Luke, but she also kept finding me and finding reasons to drag me off to bed.  I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but we might as well all be honest with each other even if that’s not something we’re good at in this mess of a family.”

Coral laughs along with Merlin.  “Sounds like if it were up to you, you’d keep both of us, and where would that leave poor Rinaldo?”

“I’d keep him too.”  Merlin doesn’t know what impulse forced those words out - maybe it was as simple as he had just said, he was trying to be honest.

Coral tilts her head, considering.  “You’d keep him _first.”_

“I know him best.”

Well, this is all very awkward and only going to get more so, especially when Merlin is alone and Luke catches up to him and mentions Coral’s child-to-be.  Coral’s and _Merlin’s_ child-to-be, the one that neither had had much choice about.

“If it were up to me - babies aren’t easy, one conceived as this one was especially not - maybe we’d all be sort of like parents? I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I want to be there for the baby, and for Coral, but if you don’t want me around -“

“Stop right there.”  Luke’s voice is quiet.  Dangerous.  “Don’t ever think I wouldn’t.”

“Meaning?” Merlin asks.

“Meaning whatever king nonsense they’ll make me do, whatever anyone’s got planned to mess with you, we’re all better together.  And I don’t just mean allies or whatever they call it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Coral wants you, Merle.  Nayda wants you.”  Then, softer: “I want you. At least as much as they do.”

“You…?”

“I’ve been wanting to - for _years_.”  Luke’s hand brushes the side of Merlin’s face.  “Can I?”

Merlin doesn’t entirely know why he agrees, but that’s how things have always been with Luke.  “Yes.”

The kiss is worth it.


End file.
